In all seriousness, my reason for a satirical response on this was more that I've got so many friends that I could list right off the bat. I help organize a loose group of Kansas City area cartoonists (www.comixperience.com, for those interested), that's just overflowing with creativity and very little recognition. And I don't really think that KC is the only place like that. I think there's pockets of cartoonists all over the world, the Next Wave of talent, who every time they create, there's the possibility that their project could be the one that puts them on the radar. It happened with my buddies like Josh (Skyscrapers of the Midwest) Cotter, Hector (Lurkers) Casanova, and Dave (colors on Battle Hymn) Bryant.

1. Hans Rickheit (I've never heard anyone who isn't me talk about this fellow)
2. Phoebe Gloeckner (her work still doesn't get nearly the amount of attention
it deserves)
3. Kevin Huizenga (Or Else #2 is a major, major achievement, and it contains work that was actually done YEARS ago, which makes me sad that I wasn't hip to it then)
4. Makoto Yukimura (Planetes was way beyond "honorable mention" status for the best of 2004; I'm worried it's in this weird no-man's-land where neither artcomix fans nor otaku are giving it enough of a look)
5. This is specific to a particular project, but Frank Miller on The Dark Knight Strikes Again (in a few years this will come to be regarded the way the first Stooges record was in 1977)

I'd include the Partyka crew (Sean Cheng, Sara Edward-Corbett, Sean McCarthy, Matt Wiegle), but since I've collaborated with a couple of them I don't want to give the appearance of playing favorites.